I rubbed on my previous car, a 2000 Contour SVT, well over 150 times in the 5 years that I owned and no, I'm not kidding either. This car had a clearcoat and with my methods, it looked brand new 5 years later which is why I got $10K for the car. I can't see the clay bar wearing out a clearcoat finish, its not abrasive at all. If I had to guess, I'd say that I clayed the car about 10 times in its life. You really don't need to clay more than 3 times a year in most cases, unless you live in an area with alot of smog/garbage in the air, then maybe 4-6 times. As far as not needing to use the paint cleaner and polish on the clearcoat, well, to each his own but I've gotten alot of compliments on my previous car for its finish, even having someone ask who wet sanded the entire car and rubbed it out because it didn't look "factory".